Content Analysis of Fourth Grade Textbooks Based on the Components of Philosophy for Children Curriculum and Spiritual Intelligence

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student, Department of Curriculum Planning, Faculty of Humanities, Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum Planning, Faculty of Humanities, Marand Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

This study seeks to analyze the content of the fourth-grade textbooks based on the components of the philosophy for children curriculum and spiritual intelligence. Descriptive research methods of library document analysis and content analysis were used. To this end, the text of library documents and all fourth-grade textbooks were analyzed to identify the components. Research tools included a checklist and a researcher-made content analysis list. The research tools were validated and confirmed by experts in research, philosophy for children and curriculum development. The reliability of the tools was evaluated and confirmed by Cronbach's alpha of 93%. Shannon's entropy was used for content analysis, which revealed the personal outcomes of philosophical thinking with the highest coefficient of significance (0.597) and the nature of philosophy with the lowest coefficient of significance (0.052).
Introduction
Philosophy for children (P4C) is an approach conducive to cultivating thinking skills in learners (Rajabi Hamedani et al., 2018). P4C promotes the development of reasoning, creativity, critical thinking, moral understanding, artistic values, citizenship, interpersonal and personal development, and conceptualization of experiences (Worley, 2016). According to Cecero and Prout (2011), in recent years, educational systems have concentrated on academic achievement, mastery of subjects, and teaching the necessary skills for participating in exams, while neglecting the learners' social, emotional, and spiritual development (Ghasempour Dehaghani & Nasr Isfahani, 2011). Recently, however, the significance of the transcendental human dimension has dawned on the West; the World Health Organization (WHO) has put forward a new definition of health by expanding and developing the dimensions of human existence and recognizing the dimension of spirituality. As such, this dimension of human existence has entered anthropology and psychology, leading to the emergence of spiritual intelligence (Sajjadinejad and Akbari Charmahini, 2016). Spiritual intelligence includes a sense of meaning and mission in life, a balanced understanding of material values, and a belief in the betterment of the world (Amram, 2005:15).
Elementary school books are extremely important in the formation of childhood beliefs, habits, and decision-making in adulthood (Azimi, 2020). To date, no research has been conducted on the P4C curriculum and spiritual intelligence. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the current status of the content of textbooks, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and provide appropriate content to meet children’s cognitive, emotional, and social needs. The present study, therefore, aimed to answer the following question: To what extent have spiritual intelligence-based P4C components been considered in fourth-grade textbooks in Iran?
Methodology
Seven fourth-grade textbooks were analyzed in this applied study. The research method was descriptive for extracting the components and involved document analysis. Moreover, the textbooks were reviewed and analyzed by content analysis. Library documents and seven fourth-grade textbooks, therefore, constituted the sources analyzed to identify the dimensions and components. Measurement instruments included a researcher-made note-taking form and a content analysis checklist to record the number of sentences, pictures, questions, and exercises. Experts in P4C and curriculum development evaluated and confirmed the extracted components, thereby approving the content and face validities of the research tools. The reliability of the tools was also confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha of 93%. To identify the components of the spiritual intelligence-based P4C curriculum, first, the theoretical foundations of such a curriculum were collected from books, papers, websites, relevant materials, domestic and foreign research literature. The theoretical framework was then developed using document analysis and the descriptive-analytical method. Library documents were examined by the descriptive-analytical-inferential method. Through repeated reading, the texts were analyzed by open, axial, and selective coding, which yielded four main components and 49 subcomponents. The codes were tabulated and, using descriptive statistics in SPSS, the frequency and percentage of axial codes were calculated.
Results
After extracting the components by the secondary research method and starting the content analysis process, the frequencies of each component were calculated and transformed into normalized data based on the first step of Shannon's entropy method. The uncertainty of the data obtained from these tables was listed according to the second step of the entropy method. Finally, based on the third step of the entropy method, the significance coefficient was obtained to determine which component has received the greatest attention and importance. The results are presented in Table 1.
The component of personal outcomes of philosophical thinking (frequency: 2805) had the highest, while the nature of philosophy (frequency: 809) had the lowest frequency in the seven fourth-grade textbooks. Out of a total of 6951 frequencies of the optimal components of the spiritual intelligence-based P4C in the textbooks, 809 belonged to the nature of philosophy, 2805 to personal outcomes of philosophical thinking, 2440 to social outcomes of philosophical thinking, and 897 to educational strategies for teaching philosophy. The highest significance coefficients among the spiritual intelligence-based P4C components in the textbooks belonged to personal outcomes of philosophical thinking (0.597), whereas the lowest coefficient belonged to the nature of philosophy (0.052).
Discussion and conclusion
The research findings indicate that the level of attention differs across components, and the status of thinking, philosophizing, and teamwork is ambiguous in these textbooks. Little attention has been paid to the nature of philosophy and components such as surprise, curiosity, discovery, and questioning, which form the basis of P4C. Moreover, little attention has been paid to social dimensions, while the role of individuality has been prominent. This study was limited by restrictions on comparing the research findings with the results of other studies due to the difference in the spiritual intelligence variable and the choice of the fourth-grade textbooks. In addition to rich domestic resources, it is suggested that credible foreign philosophical stories be rewritten according to the rules of the Iranian education system and the religious and national identity of the country.

Keywords

References

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The Journal of New Thoughts on Education
Volume 18, Issue 3 - Serial Number 65
November 2022
Pages 203-228

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